Absolute Beginner Crochet – Part 2 – Getting Started

Hi there. I hope you enjoyed Part 1, where I talked about the various types of hooks and yarns that are out there. I also hope I didn’t send you broke on online shopping sprees, as I know first hand how that can go!

This time I’m going to review and share a few photo and video based tutorials for the Absolute Beginner at crochet, and I hope you find them as useful as I did!

Getting Started with Crochet

The first thing you’re going to need to do is learn how to hold your hook and yarn, how to make your starting loop and how to do a simple chain. This may sound simple, but I swear it was the hardest thing for me to wrap my tiny brain and fumbly fingers around. It just didn’t FEEL right, but I’m here to tell you that if you persevere it WILL get easier and feel more natural. Please believe me on this. Also, there are many different ways to hold your hook and yarn, so try out a few of them until you find one that works for you.

OK, the first resource I want to share with you is this one from the delightful Mikey at The Crochet Crowd. Mikey explains the technique so simply, slowly, and above all – patiently! I’d recommend watching it through first, before picking up a hook, and then replaying it again, pausing as you need to to try out the various stages of getting started.

If you’re more comfortable with photographs rather than a video, then you might find Amy’s tutorials atThe Spruceto your liking. She goes into fabulous detail on the various grips, and includes instruction and photos for both left and right hand crocheters.

Another fabulous series of video tutorials is available courtesy of Sarah-Jayne at Bella Coco. She has SO many video tutorials available, including one for those of you who are starting from scratch. Her entire website is an absolute visual delight – it’s just so darned pretty! Just one thing to clarify, Sarah Jayne is from the UK, which has slightly different terminology for the various crochet stitches than in the US. I’ll talk more about this in my next post, but for now, this video just covers a starting chain, so there shouldn’t be any confusion between US and UK terminology.

Another resource which I haven’t personally tried, but have heard rave reviews about is Olivia from Hopeful Honey. I was chatting on a beginner crochet Facebook group the other day, and a new member was asking for suggestions on beginner tutorials. Hopeful Honey was mentioned quite a few times, as well as the ones above. I’ve since watched them, and can see why! Olivia’s videos are also very slow paced, and go into a lot of detail. I can’t wait to watch some of her others.

The instructables.com site has another great tutorial that’s a bit of a mix of photos and mini videos which is also very easy to follow. I especially like how it’s not a full video that you have to manually pause, but mini animations that replay again and again. The written instructions are also very clear.

There are many other tutorials out there, but I think these are some of the best, and should give you all you need to get started.

I would highly recommend just repeating the slip knot and simple chain over and over again until you find a way of holding your hook and yarn that just feels right to you. Test both knife and pencil holds, and holding yarn around various fingers, and you will find that one particular technique is going to feel a lot more natural. Remember the concept of muscle memory (see definition here on Wiki), and you can be confident that, with enough repetition, even that which feels awkward at first can become second nature after enough repetition.

This post does contain affiliate links, if you happen to make any purchases via them I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please note I only recommend products I use and love. For more details please see DISCLOSURE.

Happy Chaining!

Tx

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2 Comments

I taught myself how to crochet from a book and I taught myself some REALLY bad habits! I don’t hold my hook properly which makes me so slow. I would love to relearn but of course, I slip into old habits :p

Hi Claire – thanks for visiting. What you said is me and knitting. I am the most awkward knitter, and can’t seem to relearn without the same clumsy habits coming back. So, I crochet, instead, which I learned from some good online teachers 😀 Tx